Jermaine Pennant has given his version of events why he fell so sharply out of favour at Stoke City.

The winger, who released his autobiography last week and is entering Celebrity Big Brother tonight, has looked back on his time under Tony Pulis – giving him one of the highlights of his career but also a rapid fall from grace.

He actually started more games during a loan spell with the club than he did after he completed a permanent move from Real Zaragoza. He gradually lost his hold on a regular starting shirt in his second season as Stoke tried to balance a Premier League campaign with progressing in the Europa League – and he was not impressed to be behind Ryan Shotton on the pecking order.

By early December 2011 he was ready to leave and a trip to Everton proved the end of the line.

Jermaine Pennant slips the ball past Steve Harper for Stoke's second in a 4-0 win over Newcastle. (Image: Steve Bould)

“It wasn’t a bad relationship, it really wasn’t, I haven’t got a bad word to say about him at all,” he told Radio Stoke’s Robin Grey.

“Sometimes his training was a bit boring but that’s his way, he’s the boss, he’s a motivator – and he did his job, he kept us in the league and we had a fantastic time. It wasn’t really that bad.

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“The thing with me is that I get frustrated when I’m not playing, especially when I’m hearing the fans saying I should be, I’ve got to be… but then he’s playing Ryan Shotton ahead of me. That’s no disrespect to Ryan Shotton because he’s not a right winger, he’s a centre-back!

“It was frustrating when my expertise was to get the ball in and we had people like Peter Crouch and Kenwyne Jones, who not many people could beat in the air. That’s when I started to fall out with him because he lost trust in me. I was frustrated.

Jermaine Pennant, who scored the third, played a key role in Stoke's 3-0 thrashing of Wolves in April 2011. (Image: Malcolm Hart)

“My agent spoke to him about maybe going out on loan and Leeds were interested. I thought great because I’d been there before, I liked the city and it’s a big club so if I said if Stoke didn’t want me, Tony Pulis didn’t want to use me, I’d go and get out of his ear.

“So everything was sorted and all agreed but last minute he pulled the plug. Me and my agent were kind of confused but he said he wanted to keep me and use me.

“The next game we were at Everton so he stopped me from going on loan, kept me at Stoke… but he didn’t put me in the team. He took me to the game but I’m not in the squad. I wasn’t happy because if I’m not in the squad why am I being dragged to the game? It’s hard enough not playing.

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“I was in the changing room after the game and I’d put a bet on some other football results. I think they all came in. As Tony and his assistant came in I was checking my results and I cheered and they thought I was cheering because we lost 1-0. It wasn’t, it was because of my bet.

“The next day he told me he didn’t want me anywhere near the team or the training ground so we fell out.”

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“I was gutted to see them last season get relegated but the journey I had with Stoke, especially that first season, is up there with the time I had at Liverpool. Brilliant.

“I know the style of football wasn’t as attractive as most people like to see but we got the job done and that FA Cup semi-final is definitely one of the highlights of my career and one I’m very grateful for.”

Pulis has previously hinted he had suspected that he might only get the best out of Pennant for the short-term.

He said: “We got a good 12 months out of him. There are players like that – you know they have been rascals, and that you can bring them in, give them a new environment and get a length of time out of them, but they will always return to type.

"You can get something out of them, then you have to get rid of them. Jermaine was always a one-or-two-window player.

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“That’s management. It’s a social job as much as anything else, finding out what people are like, seeing through them.

"There have been good players and not-so-good players who I have moved along because I thought there would be a clash of character. If someone has been top cock, or whatever you call it, I’ve knocked him down, and he’s responded…

"As Cloughie used to say, ‘There’s no room for two big heads in this club.’”